Sat 27th
First thing in the morning we walked down
the many steps to the beach. Great views and the hypnotic sound of the waves
rolling in. The sand was very coarse and
soft to walk on. Loads of surfers were
already hard at play in the waves. Seems the smaller the board the more expert
the surfer! We moved the van to another pitch to allow the gazebo for the
marriage blessing event to be set up.
surfing beach below
site above
After lunch we scooted along the coast to
Geteria a small fishing port. It gets it name from the fact that it is shaped
like a mouse. All of its restaurants
were rammed full of mainly Spanish folk enjoying fresh fish dishes. Many of the
restaurants had their charcoal grills out in the street. Great to see all the different fish being
cooked so simply. The smell was wonderful. When we returned to the site we were
nosy and went to see what was going on regards the blessing event! 2 gazebos, lots of chairs , a sort of “altar”
and lots of chatter from the assembled family and friends. Looked like fun and
what a setting with the panoramic view behind them.
not guns! - net guides
fun to watch - powered by jet ski!
Sun 28th
Overcast – so laundry day. Has to be done.
Lazy day with not a lot of activity.
Mon 29th
Supermarket shop then drive to Cabarceno
safari park to stop at the free aire. Huge car park which was mainly full of
Brits just off the Santander ferry. Two of them had huge American RVs with cars
on trailers. Monsters – far too big for the majority of the sites we had been
on so far. Each to their own. The
adjacent elephant park makes it a bit surreal, we walked all of 100m and were
looking at a herd of 18 elephants, bison and impala. Nice but still a bit
weird! We couldn’t find out about the rest of the park – no posters or leaflets
available. Later I found out that there are 20km of roads and a huge number of different
animals to see close up. Next time.
100m walk to this !
Tues 30th
Breakfast then a last walk to see the
elephants! Potes was out next destination as it is right on the edge of the
Picos de Europa national park. The last 22km was on an incredibly tight and
twisty road down a wonderful gorge. No wonder the speed limit was 40 km/h. The
town looked interesting with lots of
narrow streets. The Picos towered above it. Camping Viorana was 1 km out of
town and very nice and to our surprise full of Brits. We explored the site and
had a relax in preparation for the next few days walks.
views from our pitch
Weds 1st October
October already! Where has all the time gone? It was misty
when we woke up but it sdoon cleared to reveal the surrounding peaks of
distinctive Picos grey. It is different types of limestone and very impressive.
We scooted to the visitors centre, then stopped in Potes for a walk around.
Lots and lots of places offering very tempting menu del dia. The old narrow
streets were full of character and very steep in places – didn’t stop them
driving cars up them though.
top station high above
Thursday 2nd
We moved up the valley to the car park at
Fuente De. This is where you can take a cable car up to 1825m high above you.
The huge rock face surrounding the place is very impressive and almost
vertical. The sound of the cow bells was also very soothing. Lunch packed in our rucksacks we took the
cable car up. It was hot and sunny again so the views that greeted us were
magnificent in all directions. We walked up and over into the next valley. We
saw at least 5 griffon vultures high above us – huge wingspans. Our lunch stop
certainly had a view. The Picos de
Europa is an area we have always wanted to vist – the scenery in front of us as
we ate lunch confirmed that they were certainly worth coming to.
breathtaking
amazing glacial patterns
lunch stop view
Despite signs banning overnight stops (!)
we enjoyed a very quiet night with 2 other vans also stopping for the night.
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